Assume that an electric power plant could be built in the Upper Peninsula using
ID: 1229724 • Letter: A
Question
Assume that an electric power plant could be built in the Upper Peninsula using wood as the fuel and would produce 578 megawatts of electricity. Assume that it would have an efficiency of converting wood energy into electricity of 0.26. Let's assume that wood has an energy content of 5.74 million BTU per ton. Assume that 4.5 tons of wood can be sustainably harvested from each acre of land per year. There are 640 acres per square mile, and the UP has 16,452 square miles. What percentage of the UP would be needed to supply this power plant? Express your answer in percent to one decimal place without the percent sign, such as 8.2.Explanation / Answer
First you will need to know how many million BTU the plant requires. Since 1 megawatt = 3412.1 million BTU, and the plant produces 578 megawatts, the will need 3412.1 * 578 = 1,972,136 million BTU. Now to find how many tons of wood this represents. Each ton has the energy content of 5.74 million BTU, however the plant only has an efficiency of 26%, so each ton will only provide 5.74 * .26 = 1.49 million BTU. Since the plant requires 1,972,136 million BTU, it will require 1972136/1.49 = 1,323,581.21 tons of wood. Now how many acres are need to produce this much wood. each acre can produce 4.5 tons of wood, and we need 1,323,581.21 tons. This means that 1323581.21/4.5 = 294,129.16 acres will need to be harvested. Now convert this to square miles by dividing by 640. 294129.16/640 = 459.58 square miles. And since there are 16452 square miles in the Upper Peninsula, 459.58/16452 = 0.0279 or 2.8%